The director is aiming to make the superhero more like a regular human - even though he is an Kryptonian alien, raised by humans - so viewers can empathise with him more than in previous films.

Snyder said: ''I wanted the audience to go 'If I was Superman that's what I would have done!' That's the thing you haven't felt from Superman before - he's always been foreign, and weird.''

Producer Charles Roven - who also worked on Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy - is keen to play down comparisons between the two superhero movies, and feels 'Man of Steel' will be more optimistic.

He told SFX magazine: ''Of course there'll be comparisons to 'The Dark Knight'. I love the stories that Chris made, but this is a very different aspect - the sci-fi aspect, the way we shot it, the character. All those things combined. It's a much more optimistic movie, in a weird way, just because it's Superman.''

While Snyder has promised part of Superman's character which will remain intact is his heroic decency, he is keeping almost all of the other aspects of the film's plot a mystery.